Criteria for a good replacement battery (Model A1185) ?

Hi,

I'm looking to replace the A1185 battery (from a MacBook A1181).

I could find compatible batteries, some with a capacity up to 5'600 mAh, but still do have question to select a good battery.

1) Which is the capacity of original Apple A1185 batteries (when new) ?

2) Does original and compatible batteries use an internal controller (circuit board),
which could influence how the internal cells are charged,
and maybe the number of charge cycles ?

3) Before purchasing a compatible battery, should I ask the number of charge cycle or to see some chart ?

4) Is is true that a difference of +/- 0.3 V in voltage should not be an issue ?

I could find many theads with pros and cons for "unofficial" batteries.
The main argument for compatible batteries is their price.

Some people object that non-Apple batteries could be source of problems.
I however believe there should be some producers able to provide good compatible batteries.

So, excepted capacity, what makes the difference between a good and a bad laptop battery ?

grink said:

Hi,

I'm looking to replace the A1185 battery (from a MacBook A1181).

I could find compatible batteries, some with a capacity up to 5'600 mAh, but still do have question to select a good battery.

1) Which is the capacity of original Apple A1185 batteries (when new) ?

2) Does original and compatible batteries use an internal controller (circuit board),
which could influence how the internal cells are charged,
and maybe the number of charge cycles ?

3) Before purchasing a compatible battery, should I ask the number of charge cycle or to see some chart ?

4) Is is true that a difference of +/- 0.3 V in voltage should not be an issue ?

I could find many theads with pros and cons for "unofficial" batteries.
The main argument for compatible batteries is their price.

Some people object that non-Apple batteries could be source of problems.
I however believe there should be some producers able to provide good compatible batteries.

So, excepted capacity, what makes the difference between a good and a bad laptop battery ?

Click to expand...

A1181 batteries are being built by a number of 3rd party groups.
your cheapest/easiest source is going to be Amazon.. but i'd suggest going "Prime" because you have a 30-40% chance of getting a 'dud'....

If you want to buy new, you'll certainly get a longer life.. and you should, as you'll be spending 4-5x's the price...

a 3rd party battery will likely get you 9-16 months of use. An original should get you 2-4yrs, if you maintain and use it properly....

I was doing service for a school last year, which has about 200 A1181s, and we tried 3rd party vs Apple.. The 3rd party off Amazon had a huge failure rate (25-30% were DOA or dead within 2 weeks). The long-term rate though was quite good-out of ~140 batteries, we only lost 5 or so within the first year.

That may sound crazy, but when you consider that we were quoted $119 by Apple, and we bought them on Amazon for $22 delivered, it was essentially an 80% price break, with a 4% failure rate. the DOA batteries were returned for refundd within 30 days, and the 4 or 5 that failed--well we just chalked that up to playing the odds...

All in all, we spent about $3200 on batteries (including replacing the few that failed), whereas the Apple quote exceeded $17,000 after taxes..

At those rates, I'd suggest looking on amazon for the highest rated company you can find who sells it Prime, and ordering it.. if it fails within 30 days (or if within 30 days you see it having an issue), you can return for free and buy another!

Thank you VAMountaineer for sharing your experience with many details.

So, If I understood you, I should buy either an Apple second hand battery or a 3rd party battery of good quality.

I also could see that the cells from Apple original batteries are sold on Alibaba, but only in quite large quantities.

a 3rd party battery will likely get you 9-16 months of use. An original should get you 2-4yrs, if you maintain and use it properly....

Click to expand...

So the original batteries seems lasting longer. But my question is why?
I'm trying to understand what makes the difference.
The battery charge controller maybe ?
Then, what about purchasing a brand new 3rd party battery and replace the cells from the original (but old) Apple battery by unsoldering / resoldering the cells ?

As I'm in Switzerland, purchasing on Amazon is quite difficult, because of the shipping costs.

How to know if those batteries are good ? :
List Battery YAMPE GmbH